Hot air balloon ride on your bucket list?

38th annual event features 25 balloons and other activities

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The 2018 Coshocton Hot Air Balloon Festival Queen Keirstan Hall takes a ride in a tethered hot air balloon with pilot Bob Scobee during the opening day of the annual festival on Thursday, June 7, 2018 at the Coshocton County Fairgrounds.(Photo: Sara C. Tobias, Sara C. Tobias/The Tribune)Buy Photo

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Keirstan Hall, 17, was named queen of the 2018 Coshocton Hot Air Balloon Festival on Thursday

The event features 25 balloons giving rides, doing a Night Glow and competing in a target drop

The event started 38 years ago and grew out of a demonstration at Coshocton Lumber Company

People from all over the state and beyond attend to watch the balloons and take tethered rides

COSHOCTON – Terry Mosley of Willard can mark an item off her bucket list after going up in a hot air balloon, thanks to the 38th annual Coshocton Hot Air Balloon Festival.

The three-day event featuring 25 hot air balloons and thousands of people coming from all over the state and beyond is being held at the Coshocton County Fairgrounds. The kick-off Thursday featured tethered balloon rides, a demonstration of three balloons launching and the crowning of the festival queen.

Keirstan Hall, 17, was named queen, previously having been the West Lafayette Homecoming Queen in 2016. She said she looked forward to doing the festival circuit again, but most appreciated the $500 scholarship to help with her education. Hall is in the early childhood education program at the Coshocton County Career Center and hopes to attend college at Ashland University.

“I’m a little nervous about going up in a hot balloon,” she said with a nervous laugh after the contest.

Hall was the first to participate in the tethered balloon rides and said she loved it. The tethered rides had the balloon hooked to the ground. It would go up about 100 feet for a minute or so and then come back down.

Mosley said she has a fear of heights, but it didn’t kick in. Facing that fear was one reason she wanted to go up. It was her first time at the festival.

“I didn’t know how I was going to feel going up, but it was awesome,” she said. “I’m now ready for a full ride.”

Also attending the event for the first time was the Miller family of Canton. Jaden, 13, went up with his sisters Jaelinn, 9, and Jasmine, 10. They were all smiles as they ran back to their parents from the ride.

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Zee-Nith balloon pilot Alex Jonard II, of Illinois, waves to his ground crew as he takes off during the 2018 Coshocton Hot Air Balloon Festival's opening day on Thursday, June 7, 2018 at the Coshocton County Fairgrounds. Jonard, who grew up in West Lafayette, returned home to participate in the annual event. (Photo: Sara C. Tobias, Sara C. Tobias/The Tribune)

“Mom and dad thought it would be fun for us, because we had never been on a hot air balloon before now,” Jaden said.

The attending balloonists compete in competition if weather allows it. Balloonists fly to designated areas with a big X on the ground. They drop a weighted nylon bag with a 6-foot streamer on it from the balloon to see how close they can get to the center. The most consistent pilot over the weekend will be named winner of the contest.

Sean Askren of Cincinnati has been competing at the Coshocton festival for 12 years. He said the event was one of his favorites because of the community and terrain.

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Kynlee Adolph, 9, peers over the edge of a hot air balloon during a tethered balloon ride on the opening day of the 2018 Coshocton Hot Air Balloon Festival on Thursday, June 7, 2018 at the Coshocton County Fairgrounds.(Photo: Sara C. Tobias, Sara C. Tobias/The Tribune)

“It’s a fun flying area with the rolling hills,” he said. “I like meeting all different people and seeing the smiles on kids’ faces.”

Ken Cramer and his wife, Patty, have been involved with the festival since the beginning. Along with helping to organize the event and assisting pilots, they flew a balloon for 22 years.

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Ken Cramer talks about how the Coshocton Hot Air Balloon Festival was started 38 year ago and how he and his wife fell in love with the sport.
Leonard Hayhurst/Tribune

“Ballooning is a family sport and a unique sport. For some reason, it touches the child in us,” he said. “I think that’s proven, because when I was flying many times close to a highway, you’d hear truckers honking their horns because they got excited seeing a balloon in the sky. It touches people in a magical way.”